Chicago noise enthusiasts Running have unleashed an explosive new track off their upcoming album Asshole Savant, due out this year on Captcha records.
Running is the kind of band that gets off on leaving you wanting more. From the band’s minimal web presence to this short, tasty track, the band is great at building up a thirst.
“I Can’t Believe I’m Alive” begins its aural assault with brutally heavy drum beats accompanied by screeching guitars and howling vocals that sneer with perfect punk rock prowess. The song chugs along at break-neck speed becoming the perfect soundtrack for an old-school pogo dance party or the standard punch-to-the-gut mosh pit experience. Listen to the track after the jump.
Well, wouldn’t you know it, not even a week later, but the record’s first single was first premiered on RollingStone.com.
As I earlier speculated, this first bit of new Maps & Atlases material continues with the very melodic approach Maps & Atlases showacased on their 2010 record, Perch Patchwork.
“Winter” is a pleasant uptempo number that glides along some peppy guitar play and a bubbling rhythm. It’s quite airy, so much so that the song sounds in danger of floating away if it weren’t anchored by singer Dave Davison’s smokey croon. Listen to “Winter” below:
The band are heading to Europe in April, and there are no North American dates scheduled as of now. But logic says we should expect Maps & Atlases to roll through their hometown sometime this summer.
Monday Afternoon Quick Fix runs every Monday afternoon to showcase the best of Chicago music news, views and stories from around the interwebs and blogosphere that we might have missed.
• As reported late last month, orchestral pop outfit Canasta has ventured to Mongolia as a part of the U.S. State Department’s Arts Envoy program. The group has been providing Gapers Block with a daily tour diary and from the sounds of it, the trek has been mostly positive with the band encountering enthusiastic locals at its performances and sampling Mongolian vodka.
• The Chicago Reader reports on Logan Square restaurant/concert venue Panchos’ transformation into “Township,” a new restaurant/venue by MPshows and restaurateur Tamiz Ciccone. If only Pancho, the man, would hang around shows just to play sax with the bands on stage.
• The Sun-Times is having a little Grammy-related fun by asking readers to vote for their “fantasy” Chicago All-Star band. C’mon you know, you want R. Kelly to team up with Liz Phair, Curtis Mayfield, and Bun E. Carlos from Cheap Trick.
Hard rockers Local H have returned to the studio to record the group’s first full-length album in nearly four years. And the band is allowing fans to check out the results.
The duo of Scott Lucas and Brian St. Clair filmed themselves during varying parts of the recording process and posted the clips to the band’s Facebook page (like this one). It looks like most of the new jams, such as “Another Februrary” and “Paddy Considine,” that surfaced during last year’s touring cycle will appear on the new album.
Local H have holed up at Bucktown’s Engine Studios with local veteran metal producer Sanford Parker, who has previously worked with Bloodiest, Pelican and Yakuza.
Experimental psych rockers Disappears joined Jesse Menendez, host of Vocalo (89.5 FM)’s The Music Vox, to discuss and preview two new cuts from the band’s upcoming album, Pre Language, due out March 1.
Vocalo just released a portion of the interview with Brian Case and Damon Carruesco, which took place on December 29. Case and Carruesco chose new tracks “Replicate” and “Fear of Darkness,” both of which rumble and reverberate with a hazy vigor. “Replicate,” (located at 8:30 in the interview) especially features a pretty bad-ass lead guitar solo.
Also during the interview, Case and Carruesco discuss the vagaries of the Disappears songwriting process, how Sonic Youth’s Steve Shelley adds to the dynamic, and what “blissing out” during the band’s live shows really means.
Applicant for hardest working man in the biz, Netherfriends is set to release his next album Middle America on Feb. 7, 2012, via Kilo Records.
Of course, if you are a) super desperate for some Netherfriends action or b) a super fan of cassette tapes, you can order the album via Plustapes right now.
Middle America, says Kilo Records, will contain the first 12 songs from Netherfriends’ head honcho Shawn Rosenblatt’s ambitious “50 Songs in 50 States” project.
In celebration of Middle America’s release, Netherfriends is heading to Europe in mid-November after a week-long stay in Portland, Oregon. But no, that’s not all. Netherfriends has also released an never-before-heard remix of “Full of it” from his most project Netherfriends Does Nilsson.
Sometimes we’re so busy in telling you about all the great little bands from Chicago, the bigger ones get lost in the shuffle. Case in point is the news of Wilco announcing a new single and readying their follow up to 2009′s Wilco (The Album) possibly as early as September.
The first bit of news comes from Pitchfork.com, where it was reported that the band announced a new 7″ single, “I Might,” which will also feature a cover of Nick Lowe’s “I Love My Label.” Quite a fitting song choice seeing how the single will be release on Wilco’s own, newly formed dBpm Records.
The single will first be sold at Wilco’s Solid Sound Festival, which goes down this June 24 – 26 in North Adams, Massachusetts, with a wider release expected in July.
But that’s not all the news bubbling up in the Wilco camp. Last week, SPIN posted an in-depth feature interview with Jeff Tweedy regarding the band’s upcoming full-length, which may or may not be a double album and may or may not be titled Get Well Soon Everybody.
Last week, 
Hard rockers 
Sometimes we’re so busy in telling you about all the great little bands from Chicago, the bigger ones get lost in the shuffle. Case in point is the news of 
